Man rapes friend’s 9-year-old daughter in Nawanshahr

The accused offered the girl a lift on his bicycle when she was returning home after having langar at a temple on Janmashtami. Instead of dropping her home, he took her to a field nearby and raped her.

A nine-year-old daughter of a migrant labourer was raped by her father’s friend when she was returning home from a temple, police said on Thursday.

The accused, Raj Kumar, a labourer from Jharkhand, offered the girl a lift on his bicycle when she was returning home after having langar (free meal) at a temple on Janmashtami. Instead of dropping her home, he took her to a field nearby and raped her, the police said.

The parents of the victim are labourers from Bihar and have been living in Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) for the past few years.

The father said that his daughter, a student of Class 4, had gone to the temple in the afternoon but when she did not return by night, a search was launched. “We found her near the canal bridge at Mehatpur village,” he said.

Assistant sub inspector (ASI) Amarjeet Kaur of Balachaur police station said the accused was absconding. “Efforts are on to catch him. The girl is undergoing treatment and is stable,” she said.

The victim’s father approached the police on Wednesday. A case was registered under Sections 376 (rape) of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.